Seeking help for OCD: a study comparing three videos (Version 1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Seeking help for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): a study comparing three videos (Version 1)
IRAS ID
109784
Contact name
Karen J Robinson
Contact email
Research summary
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe and disabling mental illness. People with OCD have obsessions (e.g. unwanted, intrusive thoughts) and compulsions (e.g. repetitive behaviours). OCD can interfere hugely in people’s lives; they can lose relationships, jobs or become housebound. 1% of people in Britain have OCD. Yet, of the people who have OCD, and no other mental illness, only 14% seek treatment, with a typical delay of 11 years.
It is vitally important that we understand more about what might encourage people to seek help earlier. For this study we have made three different videos related to mental health / OCD. These videos have different content and / or are presented in different ways. We are interested in finding out to what extent these videos are helpful to people, as they think about seeking help for OCD.
We will be inviting 60 people who have never sought help for their OCD, or who have sought help previously but for whatever reason it didn’t work out, to take part in the study. Participation would involve watching one or two of the three videos and filling in questionnaires before, during, and afterwards. These questionnaires include rating scales of participants’ reactions to the videos e.g. their rated likelihood of seeking help. The videos will be randomly allocated to participants to enable us to find out whether there is any difference between them. To assess the longer-term impact of the videos participants will complete a final questionnaire six months later.
At the end of the study participants will be offered a de-briefing and the opportunity to see the most helpful video if they have not already done so.
This study was initiated, and is being conducted, by a researcher with personal experience of OCD and successful treatment.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/0122
Date of REC Opinion
10 Mar 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion